Analysis and synthesis of voice fundamental frequency contours of spoken sentences

A model is presented for the analysis and synthesis of F
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-contours of spoken sentences. It is based on a quantitative formulation of the process whereby the logarithmic fundamental frequency is controlled by the phrase and accent commands, being respectively related to the syntactic and lexical information of a sentence. Analysis of natural utterances revealed that the model can generate close approximations to observed F
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-contours. Requirements for the accuracy of model parameters were determined by listening tests of synthetic utterances. These results indicate the model's utility in speech synthesis.